Prisoner of War
by Uruwashii Inochi
Summary: Duo has been missing for weeks. Can Heero find him in time?


I don't own anything from Gundam Wing.

(o)(o)(o)

He wanted to die. Death would be a welcome mercy compared to the excruciating pain he was forced to endure. Daily beatings that lasted hours followed with rape by several of Oz's, lesser soldiers. Occasionally there was torture for information that he still refused to give up. Three weeks he'd been missing and in all that time, no one had come looking for him.

A single tear slid down his cheek. He had held to the hope that someone would come looking for him. At the same time it had been a special ops mission and he hadn't told anyone about it either. They wouldn't know where to look even if they were in search of him.

He stared blankly up at the ceiling, not that he could see it in his dark cell. He could hear faint footsteps coming down the hall and another tear fell. Knowing what would accompany those footsteps; he closed his eyes and silently prayed for death.

(o)(o)(o)

_Three weeks. _Heero thought. That's how long Duo had been missing. He knew he'd left on a mission, but he couldn't find any information concerning it; at least none that had been recorded. He had hacked all of Oz's systems and found nothing about any new captives or soldiers. Professor G hadn't given him anything to go on either. Stubborn fool could mean Duo's death if he'd been captured. Of course, Dr. J had to send him on a covert mission to infiltrate Oz in the midst of his search.

"Three weeks." He whispered as he walked down the hall of Oz's detainment center.

At the time he was assigned his mission he hadn't fully understood why he needed to infiltrate Oz for information he could easily gain from hacking into their systems. After impersonating a soldier for two weeks it was completely by accident that he stumbled across the information he was seeking.

He had been walking through the base making inspections, like the soldier he was impersonating would normally do, when he heard two soldiers talking just around the corner.

"They actually caught one?" A younger man's voice was asking.

"Yeah, caught him placing explosives around one of the Leo storage facilities. Poor bastard never knew what hit him." A much older man replied.

Heero's heart nearly stopped. They could only be talking about one person and in the next instant the older man confirmed it.

"He calls himself the God of Death."

"I hear he's been taking quite a beating from our interrogators."

"I heard that he's been raped too."

Heero dropped the clipboard he'd been making notes on during his inspection. In that moment he saw red as the men came around the corner. The younger man was unconscious in a heartbeat while he held the other man at gun point.

"I want all the information you have on this captive." He gritted out. Killing the man would have been a splendid idea at the time, but he was the only person that could tell him where to find Duo."

The man was a pitiful excuse for a soldier. He told everything right then and there without a moment's hesitation. He even named all the soldiers involved in the interrogations, beating, possible rape and torture. After knocking the second man out and dragging their bodies into a nearby closet, Heero struggled to regain his composure. His first thought was to run to the containment cell and get Duo, but another part thought a little more rationally. Oz would certainly notice if a prisoner disappeared suddenly and there was still a matter of revenge.

Now he understood why Dr. J had sent him on the mission. He wasn't there to collect information at all; he was there to retrieve Duo. Smart Geezers, they knew if they had told him out right why he was infiltrating Oz, he would have charged right in with Wing and blown up everything thing in his path until he found Duo. Doing it their way made him a little more rational and discreet about his mission.

For the next week he had hunted down, slowly and painfully killed all involved with Duo's interrogations and then covered up their deaths. Satisfied with the punishment he'd dealt to them, he had requested transfer into the interrogation faction of Oz, now that most of their men where A.W.O.L. His superiors never questioned his motives for transferring, just signed the papers and sent him on his way.

Now he finally had his chance to rescue Duo and get out of the hell hole Oz considered a base. His footsteps echoed down the empty corridor as he made his way down to the only occupied cell in the detainment center. When Duo had been captured Oz never recorded it into their data base so no one knew he was there, not even the officers. Only the interrogation sector knew what was going on, but rumors where spreading quickly, and word finally did get out, he would be able to rescue Duo without killing everyone on the base.

Heero stopped his hand just above the handle. He was afraid of what he would find on the other side of the door. His heartbeat quickened as he grasped the door handle and slowly opened the door, its' hinges groaning in protest.

(o)(o)(o)

Bright light flooded the room and Duo was forced to turn his head away, unable to lift his hand to shield his face from the light. He heard a sharp intake of air and wondered about it. He slowly opened his one good eye, giving it time to adjust to the light. There was only one shadow in the doorway, which was odd.

_What am I in for now?_ He wondered.

"Kill me." Duo croaked out, almost in a whisper.

Heero's voice caught in his throat; he was at a complete and utter loss as to what to do. The scene before him sent chills up his spine. Duo lay motionless on the floor; if he hadn't moved his head he could have sworn that Duo was dead. His left eye was completely swollen shut, his face covered in bruises and swollen. Fresh blood trickled down from under neither his hair to mix with the old dried blood pooled up around his body. His hair was no longer brown, but crimson with the blood that was now stained to the concrete floor. He looked almost skeletal from lack of food and water. Heero didn't dare think about what horrors lay out of sight.

Duo's voice nearly killed him, so strained and desperate for death to over come him. He started to cry and from the clean path he made out on Duo's cheek, he'd been crying recently as well.

"Duo." His voice cracked from the emotions flooding over him.

"Don't play with me damn it! Just…get on with it." Duo replied angrily. He couldn't count all the times he'd heard Heero's voice only to find out he was delusional.

Heero felt his chest tighten. "Duo." He said, gaining more control of his voice.

"I said stop playing with me! I'm delusional, I get it!" He screamed out.

"You're not delusional." Heero replied solemnly. He thought he heard a whimper before Duo responded.

"Heero? You're here, I'm not dreaming?"

Heero entered the cell and gagged when his senses were assaulted with the smell of blood and excrements. He gently move Duo's bangs off his forehead and out of his eyes.

"No, you're not dreaming." Duo looked even more gruesome up close than he had from the doorway.

"We're leaving then?" He questioned, tears of happiness running down his face.

"Yes."

"Good." Duo's eyes closed and his breathing slowed.

"Duo? Duo wake up." Heero pleaded but Duo didn't respond. Seeing that his chest still rose and fell with each breath he assumed he had finally passed out. It was better that way; being moved would be painful for him.

Gathering Duo up in his arms, Heero headed down the hall towards the back exit of the base. There weren't many people in the interrogation sector of the base so they wouldn't have any problems escaping unnoticed. Once outside the building he hot wired the nearest vehicle and after placing Duo in the back seat drove off base towards the nearest hospital. He would need to inform the others of what had happened. He was sure that Quatre would have had an aneurism by now from being so worried.

When he had received his assignment he hadn't bothered to inform anyone of it and left just as secretly as Duo had. Trowa probably knew what was going on; he had a knack for that sort of thing. The injustices of the missions would be preached by WuFei as he went on a tangent about why he hadn't had a mission in the past two months, yet Heero and Duo were always off doing something or other. Poor Quatre was always left to worry about everyone, though he had Trowa to help him through it. Dou's pain filled voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Heero?" It came out more like a gurgle than an actual word. It tore at Heero's heart.

"We're almost there Duo." Heero replied mechanically.

"Stop, please."

Heero could hear him trying to swallow something so that he could speak.

"No Duo." The next words could have killed him if he hadn't already expected them in some small way.

"I…I don't want to die alone."

Heero pulled off the road quickly, hiding the Oz truck in the trees. He opened the door to the back seat and was shocked to see how much blood was pooled out on the chair and on the floor. Gently, Heero lifted Duo from the truck and laid him across his lap, cradling his head in his arm.

"You can't leave me." Heero pleaded, it scared him how weak and desperate he sounded.

"I will never leave you." Duo almost whispered as blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. He made a movement for the cross he always wore but didn't have the strength. "Take it." He rasped out.

Heero shook his head, taking the cross would confirm that Duo was going to die and he refused to believe that. Duo made another attempt for the cross but Heero stayed his hand.

"Don't." Heero said gently, barely holding himself together.

"I…I knew you'd come."

Heero let out a short, curt laugh. "Why wouldn't I Duo? You're everything to me."

"I love you to, Heero."

Heero barely made out the words as Duo's body fell limp in his hands. He cradled his body closer to his, feeling the warmth slip away. He removed the cross and put it around his own neck. Tears didn't fall as he put Duo's now lifeless body back in the truck. Instead of hitting the main road he took off recklessly through the woods. He was going to take Wing and fly it straight into Oz and destroy everyone and everything in his path.

It didn't take him long to reach it, but it did take time to get himself and Duo into the cockpit. As the system turned on he gained remote access to Deathscythe before heading for the Oz base.

His attack was more or less a massacre, slaughtering all that crossed his path. The mobile dolls weren't any kind of match for his gundam or the rage he felt. Every now and then he would look down at the serene look on Duo's still swollen face and would become even more enraged. It didn't take him long to wipe out the bases defenses and when there was nothing left to destroy, he knew what he needed to do.

He closed his eyes against the bright light that filled the cockpit of his gundam, clutching Duo to his chest. This time he would not survive, but he was ok with that for the god of death was coming for him. For the first time he welcomed death by choice.

(o)(o)(o)

Quatre sat on the couch in the living room of the safe house with Trowa standing behind him and WuFei in the doorway. They were watching the news, for reasons they didn't know, Heero was openly attacking an Oz base, but recklessly, not the calculated way he normally did.

Quatre filled with dread as he watched the battle unfold and he physically hurt when he saw Wing stop its slaughter, knowing what would accompany the pause. He jumped when the explosion went off and didn't feel Trowa's comforting hand on his shoulder. Shortly after Wing detonated the phone rang causing Quatre to jump off the couch to answer it. He desperately hoped that it was news that Heero and Duo were ok.

It was Rasid; Deathscythe had detonated in the hangar bay. The other gundams were ok, but they weren't sure why 02 had just detonated on its own. Quatre hung up without another word and turned to face Trowa, tears running steadily down his cheeks.

"Deathscythe is gone." It was all that needed to be said.

Trowa pulled Quatre into his arms offering his strength and comfort while tears slowly slid down his own face unnoticed. WuFei still stood in the doorway to stubborn to let the tears fall, but later that night in the privacy of his own room they came. There would be no funeral for the lost pilots, just their memories.

(o)(o)(o)

Well, here's a one shot. It's a little long in my opinion, but I didn't want to make 2 chapters out of it. Hope you enjoy.


End file.
